The present invention is directed to the pyrolysis of organic solid wastes from industrial and municipal sources.
The disposal of wastes both from municipal and industrial sources, such as trash, rubbish, garbage, animal wastes, agricultural wastes, and waste of plastic processing operations is rapidly becoming of immense national concern. The cost of disposal ranks third behind public schooling and highways as municipal expense in the United States.
It is estimated that each individual in the country generates between 4 and 6 pounds of waste per day, that the industrial output is equivalent to approximately 5 pounds of solid waste per person per day. Previous methods of mass waste disposal, such as landfill, are becoming impossible, while others such as incineration are costly and result in air pollution problems.
A vast majority of the waste which is presently disposed of contains products which are immediately recyclable back into the economy or products into which the waste can be converted for recycle back to the economy. Directly recyclable constituents are the various metals present, such as aluminum, steel and glass. For the most part, the organic solid waste fraction may be subject to a flash pyrolysis as an operation independent of recovery of the directly recyclable inorganic fraction and any organic portion recovered as pulp. Flash pyrolysis yields char, pyrolytic oil and gases as products.